Wednesday, September 30, 2009

There's a buzz phrase taking the design world by storm and it has me asking, what is a "Clean Line"? You can't turn on HGTV without hearing it, almost every issue of my favorite magazines like Traditional Home and BH&G mention it, I've even heard it used alot in Blogland these days. I'm so ashamed to admit that I have absolutely no clue what this means. I don't want to be left in the dark about such a popular term. Is it even new? How long have these two words been used to describe a room? And what if one doesn't have clean lines? Are they inviting people into a home with dirty lines? How can I even think about calling myself a designer-wannabe if I can't make sense of this?

At a recent gathering in my modest home, one of my guests complimented me on my rooms' clean lines. I didn't dare ask "huh"? Instead I graciously thanked her as my inner curiousity grew stronger. When I walk into someone else's home I immediately start taking in all the decor. I'm very nonchalant about it - don't want to appear nosy. But when I'm fairly sure nobody's looking, my eyes start darting around the room in extreme curiousity. Not because I'm judging their design skills, but because I'm SO influenced by how other women decorate and I love borrowing, okay, stealing ideas. But something I almost NEVER notice, are lines. Unless there is striped wallpaper or plaid fabric on a chair, I'm not seein any lines. I know I'm pathetic, but I'm pathetically asking, er begging someone out there to please clue me in. please.

Saturday, September 26, 2009

In my not-so-vast experience, auctions can be hit or miss. Yardsales are a sure thing - you are always guaranteed to come home with at least one thing you can't live without. But on auction night you can stand for hours in the same spot and not come home with a single thing. Other times, you hit it big. Friday night was one of those times. On Tuesday, when my BFF and I brought some of our own items to the auction house to be set up for Friday, we were able to get a sneak peek at some other things that would be up for auction (usually we wait until an hour or so before auction to start browsing). I laid my eyes on these beauties and couldn't get them out of my head for the rest of the week.
A purdy set of Liberty Blue Staffordshire Ironstone dishes. At this particular auction there are different rooms where they auction off things simultaneously. This makes it difficult when you want things from each room, as you can imagine. Well the back room is where they auction the higher-end items. That's where these dishes were, which meant the chances of my getting them for a small sum were slim to none.
I waited patiently ALL NIGHT for the auctioneer to get to my dishes (I called them mine even though I was trying not to get too attached!). Fortunately, my husband got there from work and I asked him to please sit for me and wait to bid on these dishes while I went into one of the other rooms to check out some other things. He asked me how high I wanted to go and laughed at me when I said, "Ten bucks". The look on his face said it all, "no shot!". I knew he was probably right, but I still didn't give up.
As each minute turned into hours, I knew my chances were getting better. You see, as the night starts to wear on, the crowd begins to dissipate. The more people who left, the better my chances became! I routinely came back to check on my sweetie, who was waiting patiently for the auctioneer to get to my china. After returning three times, I finally saw the most wonderful sight! My DH putting my new set of china in a box to take home for me! And I only had to pay.........you guessed it! Ten bucks!!!! Yippeeeee!

Thursday, September 24, 2009

Today I reached a milestone in my blogging "career". Thanks to Pat at Back Porch Musings for being my 100th follower! It is Ri-Diculous how excited I get with each and every new follower. I remember when I started blogging back in February. I couldn't believe that even 10 people who I had never met, found me interesting enough to want to follow me. Now I'm at 100 and I still can't believe that 10 people I never met find me interesting. All right, I confess, I did do a good amount of asking, er, begging, some of you to follow me. Leaving humiliating comments all over blogland like "please please please follow me, but only if you want." I admit, at times I have felt like Sally Field at the Oscars......."You like me, you really like me!". Pitiful, I know. And as I continue to blog, I know that I will still get that giddy feeling seeing each and every new face on my list. It just never gets old.

If you read my post yesterday, you know that my husband reads my blog and judging from some of your comments I'm on the minority here. Well, apparently, he doesn't just read my posts - he follows my "Followers" list. He knows that Shelia from Note Songs always ends her comments with "be a Sweetie" and that Gloria from Happy To Be does her "happy dance" and even that Susan from Between Naps on the Porch hosts Tablescape Thursday and Metamorphosis Monday, although he does get those days confused from time to time. And when it's that time of the month, he's bold enough to ask "Is today Be a Witch Wednesday"? So when my dear sweet husband called from work this afternoon to see how my day was going, I was a bit surprised. He had already called an hour ago to see how my day was going. But I went along, thinking maybe he was having an early "Senior moment". But when he asked me to go upstairs into our bedroom I started to get a little curious. "Look in my bottom nightstand drawer" he told me. I thought maybe he needed a piece of paper he had written something on. He then said, "Look under my blue notebook". And there, under his blue notebook was evidence of one of the most thoughtful gestures I've ever received. Knowing I was approaching my 100th Follower, my dear, sweet, wonderful husband had this "award" made for me weeks ago to commemorate the occasion. He knows how important blogging is to me, how important all of you are to me and he's never minimized it or made me feel silly for it in any way. But I had no idea he knew it meant THIS much to me. I've become a different person since I started this "hobby". Like The Nester says, it doesn't have to be perfect to be beautiful. I know that now, but only because of all of you. I've learned so much and shared so much and I can't wait to learn and share more.

Ironically, about the same time I started blogging, all of my friends were starting to get on Facebook. I tried it......for a day, and quickly realized it just wasn't for me. And then God brought me to all of you and HE said, "This is where you belong" - and hopefully for a long time. I've seen many fellow bloggers taking "Bloggy Breaks" recently, and I've taken a few myself. It is time consuming and addicting at times. But I know that eventually you'll be back and so will I. And it's great to know that I've been missed and even greater to know that I can pick up right where I left off. So thank you. All of you. You are all so wonderful and such great "friends". Each and every 100 of you!

Wednesday, September 23, 2009

Today, whilst going about my morning I clicked on my email only to find THIS! A comment on my basement remodel post that had me busting a gut! it was from MY HUSBAND!

"Hi Girls. This is 'hubs' as I think Kim calls me out here in blog land. I need help! Look what she did to my man cave! Is no place sacred? Last week she rub and buffed my power drill! As Kim mentioned in her post, she did not post any pix of my office, since that was heavily damaged by our recent flood. What she didn't mention though, is in addition to my desk, computer and other office stuff, I also have a keyboard, Donkey Kong Junior arcade game and Air Hockey to keep my creativity flowing. Once the flood damage is fixed, it will be a fight for my man cave preservation. Husbands unite! Preserve open man space at all cost!!"

Rich - I love you for reading my posts and especially for caring what I write. You are such a wonderful husband and the love of my life!!! You inspire me in more ways than you will ever know.

Tuesday, September 22, 2009

I am dedicating the title of this post to Tales From An OC Cottage, who has undertaken the monumental task of adding "alicious" to every word in the English language. I think this is a fab-a-licious idea, hence the name of my title. Btw, if you happen to live under a rock and haven't visited the very entertaining blog, do your self a huge favor and go check it out - NOW! This woman is wildly talented and equally hilarious! Seriously.

Okay, now on to my Fall decor. I don't have much. I prefer to decorate for the seasons by using the less is more approach. Instead of putting lots of little things all over the house, I use bigger centerpieces and just put them in a few prominant places throughout. It's easier and well, I'm lazy like that.

Here is the arrangement I threw together using the salvageable pieces I got from a yardsale floral arrangement and other stems I got from Michaels. I like how it turned out and the muted colors blend in well with the rest of the Living Room.

This is the centerpiece on my Dining Room Table. I got these papier mache pumpkins at an auction a couple years ago for $8.

This is actually a wreath that I took from my front door because the jar and candle needed a little something to spruce them up. I like how it turned out and the colors actually match the rug under this chest.

And in the same room I added these mums to my mantle. They were also a little bland, so I added some extra stems for good measure.

Moving to my kitchen, here is a cloche I'm sure you've all seen before. Its from Southern Living at Home, but I got it at a flea market this past weekend for $5. I love how it looks with the candle and fall garland and I can easily change it out for the seasons.

Finally, this is the centerpiece that it not so centered on my island. I put it in the corner like that so I wouldn't have to move it every time I use the island, which is all the time! I picked up most of these pumpkins and gourds at a yardsale over the Summer for $2 in a huge bag filled with fall stuff. I guess nobody was thinking about their fall decor in June.....except me.

And that's it. I've been marveling at all of your wonderful blogs filled with such beautiful Fall decorations and vignettes and centerpieces and mine just pale in comparison. I wish I had your incredible imaginations. Thanks for visiting and go out and enjoy your first official day of Fall!!!!!!

Thursday, September 17, 2009

For those of you who didn't catch this in my last post, we've been having major flooding problems in our basement recently. Our home is 10 years old and the problem only started about a year ago. We've already removed the carpeting, which killed me, and we are in no position to get new flooring. Not to mention, we still haven't completely diagnosed the problem, so to put new floors in would be silly at this point.

Mr. Wonderful finished the basement himself about 5 years ago and our family has spent lots of time down there - especially the kids and their friends. And as of recently, it has also become home to Mr. W's office. Given that he will now have to spend alot of time down there (and the rest of us don't want to!), I tried to make it as nice as possible for him down there. We were lucky enough to score a free L-shaped desk for him through Craig's List. Also, the front half of the basement so far has been untouched by any water, so we put down some carpet tiles we scored at the auction last week for fifty bucks. The rest was just stuff I moved from around the house and things I picked up at yard sales. Here is what I have done so far:
The bombe chest I got at a yardsale for $25 and painted black with some gold rub'n buff accents. The chair was from Goodwill and I also painted it black and reupholstered in a leopard print fabric.

The fireplace Mr. Wonderful put in himself, we just had to have a plumber do the gas line. It makes winters alot easier to bear down in the cold basement. The shelves I got from Christmas Tree Shoppe and the accessories I shopped for around my house.

This sofa definitely needs to be replaced, but until we can afford it, I just dressed it up with some pretty pillows I got at an estate sale. The wrought iron piece over the sofa was $3 at a yardsale. May paint it black at some point, but for now I like it gold.

This is at the bottom of the stairs. It makes a nice statement when you open the door to the basement. I picked up the server from someone's curb. It was in need of a little TLC, so again, I painted it black with the gold to spiff it up. It now "serves" as my candle storage. I love it when I can repurpose something and actually use it to store something. The mirror I got from Ebay and the other accessories were from the auction. I love the lamp with the leopard glass shade.

And there you have it. So now even I don't mind spending time down there. Now mind you, I purposely DID NOT show you the rest of the basement - the actual office part where poor Mr. W has to work. There are now huge holes in the dry wall where we tried to find the source of the flooding and the floor is just the bare concrete. For now, I'll add it to the growing list of things that need a fixin' around here. Ah, the joys of homeownership. Ugh!

Tuesday, September 15, 2009

Hello to all of my wonderful, dear blog friends! Thanks for sticking with me as I've been so sporadic with my posts lately. The main reason is my computer - I need a new one!!! We've been in our home for 10 years now, bought it new, and everything seems to be in need of repair. The basement flooded (UGH!), garage door opener broke, screen door - gone, hot tub needs a new something-or-other, bathrooms need new floors - you get the picture. Now I know what you're all thinking - poor girl, her hot tub doesn't work! I know this sounds frivolous, but I was just recently diagnosed with what may be Rhuematoid Arthritis and my aching joints would just kill to get in that hot tub these days! The rest is just little stuff, but it all adds up to one big headache and a lot of money for repairs and such. SO, my point is (yes there is a point in here somewhere) that the computer is not too high on the list. My sweet husband said I can use his laptop anytime I want, but to be honest with ya, I hate the thought of it. You probably think I'm crazy, but I just can't get used to moving my finger around that small thingie at the bottom and then trying to scroll up and down, just don't have the patience.

Before you exit this post, and believe me, I don't blame you for being tempted, I have something to show you. Yes girls, another curbside rescue. This one is a beauty in need of a little TLC, but when we came across it on our latest treasure hunt, I did my Happy Dance as Gloria would say! All drawers and pieces were accounted for, just a coupla pieces connecting the top drawers. Now, here's where I need your help Ladies.......what.is.this?

I have no idea. I've spent hours on the puter and looking through my antique books and the closest I've seen is an antique wine cabinet, only this thing doesn't have any doors, just drawers. Just give me a holla if ya have a clue!

Now, I'l be spending the better part of the day here tending to this whatdoyacallit. Some Murphy's Oil soap and a delicate layer of Old English and then I'll post some better pictures.
For now, enjoy the rest of your week!

UPDATE:: Kay, I'm back and i've been workin on watchamacallit for about an hour and a half. So far so good. Whatday think??

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Finding bliss in everyday life and getting by with a little help from my friends: my college sweetheart-turned-husband and our 3 blissful kids - two teenage girls and one miracle baby boy. I'm fascinated by any inanimate object with a past. Imagining where things came from and who they belonged to is my passion. Finding a new home for them is my challenge.